Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.
 |
The new run of PCBs for the SDrive NUXX arrived today (photo), and with them was this this piece of the PCB, embedded in acrylic, sliced, and polished to allow inspection. The through-hole plating, top and bottom layers, and everything are all clearly visible (and measurable). Now it’s time to order up the components and enclosures, wait for the end panels to arrive, and get to building.
Leave a Comment |
While a bit hot, today was a great day for a ride and also a good time to try out some Infinit Nutrition products. For about two years now I’ve been drinking Hammer Nutrition‘s HEED while riding, and this has been good for most riding that I do. However, it goes off pretty quickly in heat and doesn’t do the trick so well for many-hour rides.
Some friends recommended that I check out Infinit’s offerings, so I ordered up some and thus far it seems pretty nice, even mixed double-strength to be enough calories for a decent-pace two hour ride. The flavor was good, and the extra bit of flavor from the stronger mixture helped ensure that I drank water afterward. When I ordered I got some with protein (for longer rides) and some without. Today I tried the protein-less version, so for my next ride I think I’ll try the one with it in there.
This ended up being a nice ride, with me not backtracking once. I ended up taking residential and dirt roads a bit north of Stony Creek, over to the Paint Creek Trail, down through Rochester, through Bloomer, through Holland Ponds and then River Bends, and then heading back home via some more residential streets. While hot out, it was quite a nice ride. I just wish there was more shade along the route. During times when I was under trees things were quite comfortable, but the last few miles of the ride on pavement was getting to be a bit much. There was very little stopping on this ride, only a little bit in Holland Ponds to climb over fallen trees and walk up the stairways.
Today’s stats:
Distance: 38.07 Miles
Moving Time: 2:39:21
Moving Average: 14.33 MPH
Max Speed: 34.86 MPH
Bike: Titus Racer X 29er
 |
After a hectic weekend of getting married Danielle and I headed up to her aunt and uncle’s cabin in Caseville, MI to swim and relax a bit. As you can see above, we spent a bit of time swimming with Roxie, and then after that I set out for a bike ride in and around Sleeper State Park. Swimming was fun, and riding found me on both the aptly-named Sand Rd. (see?) and attempting to navigate hiking / game trails along nifty ridges through state-owned land; stuff which would do very well being turned into proper bike/hike trails. It also ended up with riding along some interesting dirt bike trails, popping out in a neighborhood not far from where I’d started.
Despite not making it to a lake that I’d set out towards (single track-ish stuff distracted me) I ended up with about a sixteen mile ride and ~2 hours poking around in the woods. Not bad for something mostly unplanned along the shoreline of what’s otherwise quite-flat farmland.
2 Comments |
Today while riding at Stony Creek I got my first flat of the year, a pinch flat that happened somewhere in the Back 9 of the Roller Coaster. Just yesterday I switched from the original rigid fork on the Salsa El Mariachi to a squishy Rock Shox Reba which made me feel much more comfortable riding the trail quickly. I strongly suspect that I was fine with the lower pressure when riding the rigid bike more slowly, but today I took something a little too fast, didn’t pick as nice of a line, and pinched the tube. Oh well. That’s what spares are for.
(This was another great day of riding. In the last four days I’ve been lucky enough to ride almost all of my favorite local trails, including Bald Mountain, Addison Oaks, Stony Creek, River Bends, and Maybury.)
2 Comments |
For years now I’ve been using Feedback Sports’ RAKK storage and display stands to hold up bikes around the house. Unfortunately, the place I bought all of mine from sold them without the clips to hold them together. Wanting to clip them together in the garage I emailed Feedback Sports asking if they had them available.
After a brief exchange of email, Sammy, an internal sales and customer support person sent me a $0 invoice for the exact number of clips that I didn’t have, and it arrived this morning. Now I’m able to hook all four racks together, which is quite nice as then they don’t slide around the floor when shoving bikes into them.
Thanks, Feedback Sports!
Leave a Comment |
I’m not going to complain about a trip to the ATM and UPS drop box expanding into an hour+ ~14 mile ride that involves meeting Danielle for frozen custard, but platform pedals and sandals weren’t the best choice. Next time I’ll wear something better.
1 Comment |
Yesterday I met up with some friends from MMBA / mountain biking stuff and recorded this video of one lap of the current single track at River Bends. It starts out with me following a guy named Jim (who provided the camera), until part-way through (after ripping his shirt on a tree) he drops back and I follow Vlad to the end of the single track trail. This does not show any of the pavement, seasonal loops, or two track return trail.
Click the image above or here to watch.
Leave a Comment |
Having worn out the chainrings on the Titus I took time to tear down the bike, check torque on all fasteners, bleed and change the fluid in the brakes, and generally give it a mid-year cleaning. I also fitted the Wickwerks chainrings seen above, a Mountain XC Compact set acquired in this bundle. (The cranks were used on the Salsa El Mariachi.)
Erik and Nick are both using these rings, and I’d heard nothing but great things about them, including how (incredibly) quickly they shift. Having fitted them and gone for a test ride, I’m very impressed. The specially ramped rings quickly lift the chain, making shifts happen much faster than traditional rings where a pin or two will lift the chain. Whether or not high performance front shifting is really that important is definitely debatable, but with the rings being a good price (in the bundle) I’m considering them worth it.
What’s particularly interesting is something that Erik pointed out. When on the bike stand the front chainrings seem to shift just about as well as any other set. However, once on the bike and under load they shift much, much faster.
2 Comments |
I just received thirty (30) SIO connectors. Why, you ask? For the next batch of SDrive NUXXs that I’m going to build… It’s been about two years since I shipped the last built any and a brief straw poll shows interest in another run. So, I think I’ll put some more together.
Leave a Comment |
While riding this past week I had a few occurrences of what seemed like a bit of chain suck which quickly corrected itself. I’ve also been having a problem with the chain dropping into the smallest chainring up front, telling me that it’s time to look at (and readjust) my drivetrain. Looking over the rings this evening I found this large burr on the middle ring, along with a whole bunch of wear†, which means that it’s time to replace the middle chainring. I also got to looking at the cassette, and it’s likely due for replacement too, with small burrs forming on the more commonly used cogs. The chain is fine, with Park Tool’s CC-3 indicating less than .75% stretch, and thus safe to continue using.
When I built up the Salsa El Mariachi I used a Race Face Deus crankset purchased on a deal from Wickwerks which got me the crankset and a triple set of Wickwerks rings for just under $200. With the crankset now fitted with a Surly ring I have the Wickwerks rings left over and ready to go on the Titus. While the smallest and largest rings aren’t worn enough to replace I think I’ll replace them anyway so that I’ve got a matching Wickwerks set along with it’s high performance shifting.
I’ll probably do this all sometime later in the week, as tonight’s going to involve going to bed early. In the mean time I’ve got two other excellent bikes to ride.
† Photo of worn, almost hooked middle chainring from the Titus’ original crankset.
Leave a Comment
